


she's imperfect (but she tries)

by PuriPuki



Series: blessed be the boys time can't capture [3]
Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Character Study, F/F, severa centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-08
Updated: 2016-11-08
Packaged: 2018-08-29 22:25:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8507854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PuriPuki/pseuds/PuriPuki
Summary: Fourteen now, Severa is well educated in the art of war. People die. Children are orphaned. Kingdoms crumble.





	

One of her earliest memories is of flying with her mother. Severa was young then, hardly seven years old and unaware of the soon to come tragedies. It’s cold, and snow fell early that morning, but a ride with her mother on Luna is the best birthday present that she could ever dream of (years from now, on her thirteenth birthday, the first one she’ll celebrate without her mother, she wishes for one last ride with her and Luna). They don’t fly as high as she would like, but the frigid wind on her face and the downy feathers are well worth that sacrifice. Severa decides then, that she wants to be just like her mother when she’s older - a pegasus knight, with a noble goal and a loyal steed at her side. 

 

When she is ten, Lucina is twelve and is suddenly the heir to the throne of Ylisse. Her father is dead, her mother has vanished and taken the twins with her. Severa spends much more time with Lucina now, as her parents seem to always be gone, fighting in a far off land. She does her best to comfort Lucina, though the weight of the crown is heavy on her. She thinks Lucina is too brave and too strong for a twelve year old, but nonetheless, Severa stays close behind her friend. After all, what are friends for?

 

She is twelve now, and her parents are going away again. Though they say that they love her, she snaps at her mother, screaming and crying as they try to calm her. “Why are you even fighting anymore? Why can’t you stay here, don’t you love me? Or do you only love your dead king? Am I not good enough?” Her words do no good. Her mother tells her, softly, that she is fighting for those she loves, and leaves without another word. 

 

Two days later, a common foot soldier arrives, with a small box holding two matching wedding rings. 

 

Fourteen now, Severa is well educated in the art of war. People die. Children are orphaned. Kingdoms crumble. At sixteen, Lucina has taken up the mantle of the Exalt of those few hundred who still live, as Lissa was slaughtered in a futile battle against Grima. Well versed in sword fighting, she and the other children of the Shepherds (They were legendary, once. A King and his master tactician, doomed by who knows what) struggle to uphold the legacies their parents left them. Just short of defeating the Fell Dragon, perfection is her ultimate goal - her mother left a legacy of excellency and flawlessness, and as her only living child, she must achieve perfection. She has to.

 

She’s sixteen, and the legacy of Ylisse is 12 tired teenagers. The last surviving humans on this world total at 12, 12 sad and exhausted teenagers. A life without Risen, a life without starvation and fatigue, a life without war, such things are fantasies, entertained only in her dreams. For one of the first times since her childhood, before things went bad, a fantasy can become real. Naga has promised them a chance to go back, go back and stop their world from happening. A chance, nothing more, with too many risks for most. But… they’re strong. They’re capable and if anyone can survive travelling back in time, it’s them. In the end, all of them agree to go back to the past. 

 

It will be three years until she sees Lucina again.

 

She lands in the desert. Already she is discontent, under the blazing sun and among what seems to be an endless swath of sand. The first days are hard, before she comes upon a poor excuse for a village and adjusts to the time. War is raging in Plegia, and Prince Chrom has come to end it, come to kill the Mad King. Prince Chrom has come to kill the mad king years before he did in her life. Soon after the war, with resources dwindling even further after an equally mad man takes up the mantle of King, she finds herself under the employ of a shitstain of a man, forcing her to fight for him if she ever wants to see her mother’s wedding band again. She is nineteen now, and the day comes where she’s had enough with Nelson - the same day a familiar figure atop a silky white pegasus appears at the fort’s doorsteps.

 

Now that her mother and father are once more present in her life, Severa strives for perfection even more. Seeing her mother in what legends said was her prime, it’s only natural that she feels more inadequate than usual. Who could ever live up to Cordelia’s perfection? 

 

(Cordelia, a mother to a child she’s yet to carry, can only feel remorse for things she’s never said. She vows that she will make sure that the Severa of this timeline will never feel worthless or imperfect) 

 

Despite all the feelings that come with seeing her mother, being with her friends, no, family again is better than she could’ve hoped. Reuniting with Lucina itself is a gift, finding comfort in the familiarity of having all twelve of them together once more. They do their best to pretend in front of their parents, feigning happiness, despite the nightmares that always seem to hang on past opening their eyes. 

 

Despite it all, they’re okay.


End file.
